Friday, February 22, 2013

For the past several years we have prioritized eating well while living
within a budget. “How do you afford to
eat well?” is a question I hear quite frequently. What works for us might not be a one size
fits all answer, but I’m happy to share what we do here.

Prioritize your health.

This is not going to be a “How to Feed a Family of Four on Ten Dollars
a Day” kind of a blog post. We all have
our spots where we are willing to spend a little money. We are pretty frugal in most areas and eating
well is a priority for us therefore we are willing to spend a little more than
some. But, we are still living within a
budget so below you’ll see how.
* I read a quote the other day that said, “If you are what you eat, I don’t
want to be fast, cheap, and easy.” I
like it!

Plan.

We save a lot of money when I go into the store with a plan. When I don’t plan, I will grab random things
that don’t necessarily go together to make a meal. By sitting with my cookbooks and writing out
a grocery list, we end up using the food we buy. There’s nothing worse than investing in good
food and throwing it in the garbage can.

Put in some leg work.

There are some things you can do easily at home to cut costs and still
eat just as well. Simple things such as
soaking your own beans rather than buying canned or cutting up your romaine
rather than buying it precut can save you quite a bit. I suggest taking a little time right when you
get home from the grocery store to do the next step, prep.

Prep.

Some people I know set a few hours aside one day a week to prep
meals. This can be a great idea for the
busy cook. I also think it’s a great
idea to take a little time to prep right after the grocery store. I can only speak for myself but I've gone to
the store many times with great healthy intentions and purchased a ton of
produce only to find myself throwing out untouched moldy food the next
week. BUT, when I take the time after I
get home from the store to cut up a good share of the veggies, we all find
ourselves gobbling them up. When they
are ready for you to eat, you will eat them.

Stock up on staples.

You have to be careful at those bulk stores. I think when we first got our membership we
went a little crazy on some items that no one needs in bulk. But there are things we go through a lot of
in this house and I’m thankful to save money on those items when I can. Some of the things I grabbed in bulk today
include: organic spinach (hello!?!), organic
mixed greens, organic frozen berries, and Greek yogurt. Some other items we like to buy include: oats, quinoa, and organic dairy.

Double batch it.

Have you ever looked through your kitchen at 5:00PM and realized there’s
nothing in the house for dinner? And
what do you do? Go out to eat? Grab something on the go that’s expensive and
pretty void in nutrition? To avoid that
last minute crunch, I like to sometimes make a double batch for dinner – we eat
one and freeze one. It’s also a special
treat when I’m able to just pull something out of the freezer like a batch of
chili and I don’t need to make it on the spot. I've already done the work once, so why do it twice?

Learn when the sales are.

I’m not a huge coupon girl. Yes,
you can totally get a bunch of cheap “food” if you want to be an extreme
couponer but most likely you’re going to find yourself buying Pop Tarts instead
of green beans. No, thank you. (*Yes, I do use some coupons, but I’m
selective. I only buy an item if it is
something I would buy anyway.) What I do
look for is when and where the sales are.
There’s pretty much always a store in town that has great sales on their
produce for the week. I also will walk
through the aisles to see which items that I would buy anyway that happen
to be on sale. I learned a while back
that it’s no bargain to buy something on sale that you wouldn’t buy at regular
price. One local store here releases an
ad for the week and they switch over to the new ad on Wednesday. But a cool thing happens on Wednesdays, you
can get the deals from both weeks. Yep,
you’ll find me at that store most Wednesdays.

As I write this, I realize this post could go on and on. There’s probably a lot more I could talk
about: clean 15 and the dirty dozen,
meatless protein options, gardening, buying in season etc. But I’ll stop with this. I believe that if you start: planning, putting in some leg work, prepping,
using bulk wisely, make extra food to have on hand, and keep an eye on the
sales – you’ll discover that you can afford to eat better on your current
budget too!